Let Her Go
by SereneCalamity
Summary: You only know how much you love someone when you don't have them anymore. OneShot.


_This was kind of hard to write, because I'm usually a total sucker for a happy ending. But I hope you guys enjoy it anyway. This was requested by _Nina_, I hope you like it! The title is from a song by _Passenger_, and that was what loosely inspired this as well. If you guys have any prompts/requests then just PM me._

_Disclaimer: I do not own the title or the characters._

It had been seven years.

Seven years since he had seen her.

And even now, he could remember everything about her. The way her hair smelt, the way her voice sounded, and the way her hands felt when they were running up his arms to his shoulders. He remembered the smoulder in her eyes when she would be turned on, the look of glee on her face when they finished a new car, or the sigh she would let out slowly when she won a race.

God, there would be nights when he would be completely sober, staring at his roof, alone in his bed, and his brain would just be caught in this sick loop, replaying their moments together. It was as though his subconscious was reminding him of what he had lost, throwing it back in his face.

* * *

_"You brought me flowers?" Leticia Ortiz raised an eyebrow. "What the hell am I meant to do with flowers?" Dominic Toretto rolled his eyes. He had known it was bad idea to get sucked into this whole Valentine's Day charade. _

_"How the hell would I know? I thought chicks _liked _flowers!" _

_"Maybe your usual skanky, giggly chicks!" Letty let out a snort as she looked back to the subject of their argument. The flowers _were _beautiful, and they were in a tall glass vase with frosted patterns. A ribbon was tied around the thin neck, and the red lilies that spilled out the top were beautiful. Dom hadn't thought he had done a bad job in picking them out. They were beautiful, but they weren't your typical beautiful. The red matched her fiery personality, and he thought it blended well with the elegance of the lily. But hell, what did he know? _

_"I'll take you out tonight then, we'll go to the racetrack?" It was almost phrased as a question and he let out a small sigh of relief when she gave a short nod. He nodded back and turned away from her to leave the room. As he reached the door, he shot a look over his shoulder at her. She was leaning toward the flowers, one of her fingers running along a silky petal as she smelt them._

_Of course Letty would never actually admit that she liked flowers._

* * *

She was the only girl in the world that could actually keep up with him. Only one that saw through all of his bullshit and ignored all of his macho façade. She would make him work hard for her attention, raising his eyebrows at his attempts of flattery when he first realized how attracted he was to her. She would ignore him for days on end after he flirted with other girls in front of her, and then would tease him relentlessly between the sheets when she finally opened up to him again.

The first time he cheated on her, she had looked at him the next morning with a face set in stone. Everyone else was acting normally, and going about their daily business, obviously completely oblivious to what had happened. She was too proud to talk to anyone about what had happened, and apart from the cold shoulder she gave to him, she acted the same the rest of the day. That night, she had stayed up later than everyone else, and had fallen asleep on the couch, claiming she had fallen asleep while watching a movie. He hadn't said anything to her, not wanting to push her. Two weeks later, she came up to their bedroom and he had murmured under his breath that he loved her and there was no one else that he wanted as much as her.

He knew that he was lucky she came back to him. She was proud, and she was stubborn, and she demanded respect. If he was any other guy, she would have kicked him between the legs and taken off in the opposite direction. But because of the history between the two, the tie that no one understood, she came back to him. Or rather, she let him come back to her. And she did it again and again.

* * *

_"Yo, Dom! Where were you at last night?!" Vince Martin shouted from the lounge as Dom came into the lounge._

_"Was working late at the garage," Dom replied with a half smile. Letty looked up from where she was sitting on the couch next to Jesse Lomas. "What we watching?" He flopped down on the sofa, on the other side of Letty, and slung an arm around her neck. The boys joked about the wrestling match that was on the TV while Mia Toretto and Letty's eyes connected from opposite sides of the room. Mia's eyes flicked over to her brother and when she noticed what had triggered Letty's tense posture, her own lips pursed tightly. _

_"Hey, Let...Let?" Vince frowned at her and Letty looked up, obviously distracted. "You good?" He had asked her a question three times now, and she had been completely zoned out. _

_"I, uh," Letty inhaled sharply. "I'm gonna go have a shower." She stood up quickly and made her way from the lounge and up the stairs. In the shower, she tried not to let the shaking in her hands take over the rest of her body. She hated herself for feeling like this, like a weak little girl, but whenever Dom came home and lied about where he had been the night before. She had known where he was, but it wasn't until he actually lied that it all seemed to rush over her._

_"Mind if I shower with you?" Dom's gravelly voice came from behind her. Letty spun around and made her way over to the door, purposefully blocking his entrance._

_"I would understand why you want to shower," Letty spat. "Given there is orange lipstick _on your collar_." She locked her jaw as Dom's eyes dropped from hers. "I don't _wear _lipstick."_

* * *

It carried on like that for nearly a year. The team eventually caught on, some of them a bit slower than the rest. His sister knew what he was doing pretty much as soon as it begun. He knew that she hadn't confided in his sister, she was too proud to go to anyone with her problems, even her bestfriend. But it was a chick thing, female intuition. The boys took a bit longer to click on, but they did eventually. He got dirty looks in the mornings he would come home after being out all night. His sister began talking to him less and less, and spending more time at her boyfriends house. He was glad her newest man was a good one, because she had pretty much moved in there.

He knew he deserved it.

He was screwing up the best thing that ever happened to him.

And he just couldn't stop.

She lasted longer than anyone expected. The fights became more intense, the angry silences lasted days longer and the days in the garage became tense. The only way they actually seemed to connect was when they were having sex—which was surprising. He had expected her to hold out, not wanting to go near the place where he had been disrespecting her. The sex was fiery, passionate; and when they were actually talking to each other, it happened over and over again in a matter of hours. But other than that, they barely talked.

Finally, one night, she left.

It was almost eight months before anyone heard from her, and even then, it wasn't him that she called. It was his sister.

* * *

_"Letty rang," Mia's voice stopped Dom in his tracks. He spun around to face his sister so fast he felt slightly dizzy._

_"What the fuck is going on with her? Does she have any idea how worried we've been? How long we've been looking for her—"_

_"She's not coming back," her voice was still quiet, and flat, but it broke through Dom's angry tirade. His eyes widened even further. _

_"Like what—ever?" It had been seven and a half months, but they were her family. He always believed that she was going to come back. She just needed to let things blow over, to calm down. It had been a long time, but he always believed she was going to come home. _

_"Like _ever_, Dom!" Mia snapped. "You fucked up. You fucked up bad. How did you not see this coming Dom?"_

_"Hey, Mia—"_

_"Don't 'hey, Mia' me!" Her voice was rising, the angry Toretto streak coming through. "You were cheating on her! We all knew it! We just didn't say anything—outta respect for her, _not you_! We loved her like she was our sister—all of us did!" She was shouting at him now, right up in his face, eyes flashing. "You drove her away because you couldn't keep it in your pants! She was the one girl in the whole fucking world that would put up with your bullshit and you just kept giving it to you!" Dom breathed out heavily, and parted his lips as though he was going to say something. Mia's glare silenced him, and he just shook his head, dropping his eyes to the ground. Mia breathed in and out a couple times, trying to calm herself down. When she began talking again, her voice was quieter. "She forgave you the first hundred fucking times. How much more proof did you need that she loved you?" _

_"The question was never if she loved me," Dom's own voice was barely audible. "It was if she _should _love me."_

* * *

Everyone was careful not to mention her name. The boys all moved around quietly when he got into his moods, slamming down tools, kicking at doors, swearing harshly under his breath. His sister moved out, finding it difficult to be around her brother in the mood he was always in now. She would stop by the garage almost everyday, but would only be there for a couple of minutes at a time. The one time she came by the house, she noticed that the picture that usually hung above the fireplace—the whole gang, including _her_—was no longer there. If she had looked harder, she would've seen it in the corner of the room, the glass broken from where it had been thrown in a drunken rage.

He knew that it was his fault, he knew that this was always a possibility. But until she had rung, he always had hope that she would return. Now he knew that there was no chance of that, and the ache inside him grew until the pain was consuming him. There was a different girl in his bed every night, nameless, faceless—he forgot them as soon as they left his room. Every time he was inside them, he thought about her.

He saw her several months after the phone call, and it didn't go anywhere near the way he had hoped.

* * *

_It was nearly a half days drive from LA to San Francisco, and Dom made the trip willingly to the car show. It happened about once every two years and usually the whole team went—checked out the old American Muscle on display. But this year, Dom went alone. It was a weekend event and Friday night, Dom went home with one of the show girls, who was prancing around in a tiny skirt and spanks, and a bikini top. She was athletic and enthusiastic, made up for the annoyingly high pitch of her voice. She drove with him back to show, early in the morning, and disappeared to do her rounds. That was when he saw her._

_Probably the most overly dressed girl there, with skinny jeans, a white tank top and a cropped leather jacket. That unruly dark hair was tumbling down her back and all he wanted to was wrap his fingers in it. _

_"Letty," he all but choked out her name, She spun around, her eyes widened in surprise. She licked her lips nervously, shoving her hands in her pockets._

_"Wondered if I'd see you here," she murmured. He nodded. He couldn't take his eyes off her. Until the last year, he had woken up to her face every morning. He had talked to her every day. Being away from her had felt like he had a limb amputated. _

_"Let...Can we...Can we talk?" Dom asked, taking a step closer to her. She looked hesitant, her eyes narrowed slightly as she met his gaze. As she opened her mouth to reply, the bimbo from last night appeared at his elbow._

_"I'm on my break!" She announced. "You wanna sneak out back for a quick one?" She smirked, eyes all big and wide. _

_Dom had never wanted to kill anyone more. _

_Letty's lips closed and twisted into a cruel little smile. _

_"Good to know something's never change," she muttered._

_"Let—Letty!" He tried to follow her but she was a lot smaller than him and managed to twist her way amongst the crowds, disappearing quickly._

* * *

And here he was, seven years later, staring down at a picture he had found by absolute chance. He was babysitting his nephew while his sister and her husband went out for their anniversary. He was putting the boy to bed when he knocked over a stack of books and photographs. It was of her, and of his sister. His sister was holding her son, and she...She was holding a baby too. A baby girl, that had her eyes, and her mouth. She looked so natural holding that little girl, smiling down at her.

After that one photo, he couldn't help but look through the rest of them. A few more of her by herself, a couple of her with her baby, and then there were photos of him. It looked like it was a simple wedding, her dress fell just above her knee, contrasting with her tanned skin. Her hair was pulled on top of her head and it actually looked like she was wearing makeup. There were no photos of his sister there, so she mustn't have gone, out of respect for him. As long as he spent staring down at these photos, he still couldn't believe she was married...That she was a _mum_. He had always thought that if that was going to happen, it was going to be with him. It was going to be them, together, against the world, like it once had been.

He couldn't believe all the things he had done to her when she was his.

He couldn't believe he blew his chance.

He couldn't believe he had let her go.

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